Liliana
Sara was asleep in her room so Romero and I had some time for us. This happened rarely. Sara kept us busy and so far, I couldn’t bring myself to let anyone else watch her overnight or in the evening, even if Aria had offered to babysit several times.
When I walked back into our bedroom, the lights were dimmed and the door to the bathroom was ajar. As I stepped into the doorframe, my heart swelled with love. A dozen candles cast their warm glow on my surroundings and soft jazz music played in the background. Romero waited beside the bathtub, a box with my favorite chocolate truffles in hand and a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling wine on the edge of the tub. He was only in tight boxers. My eyes took in his muscled chest and strong thighs, feeling a familiar tug between my legs. Since Sara’s birth, our love life had taken a hiatus and still hadn’t picked up where it had been before my pregnancy.
“This is beautiful,” I whispered as I walked toward him and pressed up to his side. Now I wished I’d put on something sexier than a T-shirt and panties.
“Is there a reason?”
There wasn’t always. Romero was a romantic at heart and loved to surprise me with candlelight dinners or relaxing evenings in the bathtub. Still I always asked because my brain was frayed since Sara’s birth. Neither of us had ever forgotten an important occasion and I didn’t want to be the first.
“The anniversary of the night that I made you mine,” he murmured before he left a lingering kiss on my lips. I loved remembering our first night together, the moment I’d known my heart irrevocably belonged to Romero.
“That’s a good reason to celebrate,” I said, smiling up at him.
“Why don’t we relax a bit?” His eyes reflected the desire slowly kindling in my belly as well. His hands slid under my T-shirt and helped me pull it over my head before he tossed it away. Despite the warmth in the room, my nipples pimpled. Romero’s fingers next hooked in my panties and slid them down slowly. His eyes never left mine, practically devouring me. How could I have worried Romero would care that I wasn’t wearing sexy lingerie? I hooked my hands in his boxers and pushed them down. My desire burned even brighter seeing Romero completely naked.
He helped me into the tub and I sank into the hot water with a moan, feeling my tense muscles relax. Romero climbed in behind me and poured us the sparkling wine before handing a glass to me. We clinked glasses, and I settled against his chest and took a sip of my wine. Closing my eyes, I released a soft sigh. “I could fall asleep like that.”
Romero’s lips traced my throat. “You didn’t get much sleep in the last few months. If you want to sleep, I’ll hold you.”
Despite my body’s need for sleep, I also felt another growing yearning, and I knew Romero would feel an even stronger desire. “No,” I said softly. “Not tonight.” In my words swung my need for more and Romero picked up on it. As we listened to music, Romero’s hands caressed my breasts. The touch was gentle, almost fleeting. His palms and fingertips barely brushed my sensitive nipples but they puckered eagerly. Soon his cock grew hard against my back. He kissed my throat and the tender spot behind my ear as his fingers focused on my nipples, lightly circling them.
Romero’s soft teasing was just what I needed to awaken my body. Without meaning to, my legs slid farther apart, pressing firmer against Romero’s muscled thighs. One of his hands slid down my belly until his fingertips brushed my pubic bone and brushed over my folds. As with my breasts before, his touch was careful, light. His fingers seemed to discover my folds with gentle strokes, rarely touching my clit, which swelled under the soft ministrations. I turned my head and kissed Romero, tasting him. His index finger rubbed small circles on my clit. Soon I rested bonelessly against him as we kissed and he cherished me. Despite the slow pace my body soon tightened with pleasure. Romero pulled back, our eyes locked, his fingers keeping up their slow caress of my clit and nipple. My lips parted, my lashes fluttered and then my release overwhelmed me. I moaned, my body arching into Romero. He kept up his caress until I sagged against him, spent as if we’d spent hours making love as in the past.
He slid one of his fingers into me, causing me to moan again as he began to fuck me with it slowly. I reached behind myself and stroked his length. Romero’s breathing deepened immediately and he added a second finger to my center, making my inner walls clench. My head dropped back against his shoulder as I peered into his eyes.
“Don’t stop,” I gasped.
“I won’t,” he promised. I loved the darker, deeper timbre his voice took on when we made love.
I was getting closer and closer, my hips bucking in rhythm with his fingers, and then stars burst in my vision. Romero breathed heavily, his arousal unmistakable at my back.
“Ride me, Lily,” Romero murmured.
I turned around and hovered above him, his tip brushing my throbbing entrance. Our lips met in a gentle kiss as I lowered myself on his cock. When he was sheathed all the way in me, we both paused, our eyes locked.
“This feels so good,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” Romero breathed. It still amazed me how good Romero could make me feel, how loved and cared for. I hadn’t regretted marrying him for a single moment. He was the love of my life and the best father I could imagine.
Romero grabbed my hips, guiding my movements as I rocked up and down. The water sloshed gently around us as our bodies slid against each other. Soon my rocking turned almost desperate as I drove Romero’s cock deeper into me. One of his fingers found my bundle of nerves, rubbing it. My hold on Romero got tighter as I got closer. “Tell me when you come,” Romero panted.
“Not long.”
My movements became jerky, uncoordinated, but Romero’s upward thrusts hit just the right angle. “I—” Words died on my tongue as a wave of pleasure radiated through me but Romero knew my body.
He threw his head back and gripped my hips hard as he came with me.
I slumped against his chest, breathing harshly.
A sound came from the baby monitor. Both Romero and I held our breaths, listening but it was silent. I breathed in and giggled.
Romero rubbed my back. “I missed this.”
“Me too,” I admitted. I hadn’t thought about sex as often in the last months but now I realized sex was more than pleasure, it was giving and receiving closeness on another level.
We stayed like that for a while before soft wails rang from the speaker. Sara was waking up. Romero kissed me and helped me get out of the bathtub. I quickly wrapped a towel around myself before I dashed off toward the nursery beside our room. Sara was bellowing by then and didn’t quiet until I’d settled on the plush armchair and nursed her. The towel was bunched around my hip and I knew I’d be getting the armchair wet, especially the constant dripping of my hair.
Romero came in, dry and in boxers but he carried a towel. He walked over to me and created a makeshift turban for my hair. “Do you need a blanket?”
“I’m not cold,” I said with a smile. “Thank you.”
He nodded, then watched me for a little while. “Seeing you like this makes me happy.”
He bent down and kissed my forehead, then he walked out. I joined him in bed thirty minutes later. The moment I snuggled up beside him, he put away his phone where he’d undoubtedly been reading work emails. I yawned, exhausted.
Romero wrapped his arms around me.
“I always feel safe in your arms.”
He kissed the top of my head. “You are safe. If I could I’d even protect you in your nightmares.”
I looked up. “You do. Knowing you’re by my side does. I rarely have bad dreams and if I do, they have nothing to do with what happened in the past, only about the crime thrillers I sometimes read. You banished every bad memory.”
Romero tightened his hold on me. “I’ll make sure there are only good memories in our future.”
“And even if something bad happens, I know you’re there.”
“Every step of the way.”
I kissed him, then pressed my ear on his chest, listening to his calm heartbeat as I drifted off to sleep.
SHORT STORY #3
Growl & Cara
Cara
My stomach was in knots when I knocked at the front door of my former home. I’d moved into Ryan’s place only two months ago but his apartment already felt more like a home than this place ever had. Talia opened the door and gave me a smile which soon turned into a frown. “What’s wrong? You look tense.”
She wasn’t the oblivious girl of the past. At only sixteen, too much had happened to her. If Dad were still alive and saw us now, he wouldn’t recognize us, not even Mom. But she was a good actress so maybe she’d succeed in making him believe a charade.
“Big news to share,” I said.
Talia’s eyes widened. “You’re going to marry.”
I wasn’t even wearing my ring yet. It was hidden in my purse for later. Puzzled, I asked, “How do you know?”
“I expected it any day now. You and Growl live together after all. It was only a matter of time.”
She was right. Living together in our world before marriage was frowned upon, but my life had gone off the right track a while ago, so I wasn’t as obsessed with fitting in anymore. There were more important things, which was why I had wanted to live together with Ryan before marriage. He would have married me months ago, but he’d respected my wish and waited with his official proposal until a week ago. Even though I knew he wanted to marry, his knee-fall and the beautiful ring came as a surprise.
Even if I’d already said yes and would marry him either way, I couldn’t deny that it was important for me to get my family’s approval, and Talia and Mom were pretty much the only close family I had anymore.
“Does Mom suspect something?”